Popular British Ornithology, containing a familar and technical description of the Birds of the British Isles by P H Gosse - 1853

London : REEVE & CO, 1853 Popular British Ornithology is part of Reeve's Popular Natural History series which was produced to give young students a proper grounding in natural history subjects. This title is Gosse's only work on British Birds and is a beautifully put together study looking at the birds that an observer might see in each month of the year. It is a relatively rare title in what is becoming a hard to find series. This is a very good copy of the second edition which was identical to the first with 20 hand coloured plates of birds. The plate list is slightly confusing because the frontispiece is not numbered and plate 14 is placed earlier than it should be. The binding is particularly bright - with purple cloth and a gilt decoration of two birds and a nest on the front board and the hallmark gilt decoration to the spine. There is an ink signature of Frederick Lawrence, 1862, on the title page. Contents, including plates are clean and and bright. The contents are becoming slightly loose and the front endpaper is splitting - an endpaper repair would probably remedy both.